Posts Tagged ‘Jim Carrey’
5 items.
I’m not expecting a hell of a lot of traffic today, what with it being Memorial Day and all. So this next message is for our fans outside of the U.S.
Gee, you’re cool!
That being the case, do you think you could extend a little vote love my way so Monday isn’t a total bust? Thanks.
Gotta give props to my friend Nick who pointed out the plot hole in question from Bruce Almighty. Nick had a much more fervently negative reaction to the film than I did. I enjoyed the film, so I guess I got snowed.
Well, actually. That’s not entirely true. I really only liked the second act. The rest of the movie was crap.
Basically, the first act is all set up explaining why Jim Carrey hates God. He’s getting passed over at work. He gets stuck in traffic. He gets beaten up by a gang of Latino toughs. Typical “God is picking on me” kind of stuff. But Carrey complains so often and so LOUDLY, it’s becomes very annoying to listen to him whine for a half hour.
The second act is much more satisfying because we actually get to see Carrey use God’s powers in some imaginative ways. When he forces a co-worker who stole his position as anchor at the TV station he works for to speak in tongues, it’s hilarious. When he causes a meteor to slam into the planet only yards away from where he is covering a chili cook-off dressed as Mark Twain, it’s genius. Really, it’s all just an excuse to get Carrey to ad lib for an hour or so.
But the third act is totally lame. Realizing that he can’t handle the awesome burden of being God, Carrey learns A VALUABLE LESSON(tm) to “be the miracle” instead of bugging God to solve all of his problems. Yech!
This MESSAGE wouldn’t have been so unbearable if the filmmakers hadn’t chosen to beat us over the head with it repeatedly during the course of the movie’s last 30 minutes.
Of course, there are a million inconsistencies between being all-powerful and just plain uncreative. Within the structure of the story, Carrey isn’t allowed to screw with free will, but pretty much everything else is fair game.
When Carrey mistakenly causes a riot by granting everyone’s prayers, he could easily clean the whole thing up with a snap of his fingers. But does he do that? No! Instead he runs looking for Morgan Freeman not unlike Jimmy Stewart looking for Clarence in It’s A Wonderful Life. It’s no coincidence that they reference it blatantly in a couple of scenes.
Of course, the movie wouldn’t have been very interesting if Carrey had a totally free ride. But you can’t expect the powers that allow the moon to be pulled out of orbit to be ignored by the audience when Carrey runs out of the way of a falling billboard as if he were mortal.
I kind of feel sorry for Jim Carrey at this point. He’s caught between being the funnyman everyone wants him to be and the “serious actor” he sees himself as. He’s pushing 40, folks. He can’t keep up his brand of physical comedy forever. My fear is that he’ll get stuck between genres and end up with nothing.
And that would be a shame.
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As you can see, after being out of commission since Wednesday evening, Theater Hopper is up and running! Aren’t you glad I had a comic prepared in case of just such a miracle?
The story behind our down time is long and sorted. Longer and more sorted than I care to go into right now. But rest assured, I have a rant on deck that could choke a donkey!
For now, do as I do and count your blessings that the site has returned unharmed. I’m just so elated to have it up and running again, I think I’ll leave it at that for now. Check back later for the full story.
Oh! And for those of you who e-mailed and offered support, thank you. I know I’ll thank you again, but I wanted to thank you now, too.
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I’m looking forward to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s been getting pretty good reviews so far. Even my friend Nick got to see a sneak preview and he said he liked it! He’s a smart cat, so I’m more inclined to listen to his opinions.
As excited as I am to watch another Charlie Kaufman screenplay brought to life, I’m more interested in seeing what visual tricks director Michel Gondry brings to the table. Gondry’s been known as a music video auteur for several years, directing highly imaginative (and technically complex) videos for The White Stripes, Bjork and Foo Fighters. It’ll be a treat to see how he takes a walking special effect like Jim Carrey and puts him to use.
This weekend is looking good for Cami and I. Even though I’m having car problems at the moment, I’m looking forward toward spending some time together. They say it’s going to be pretty warm this weekend, so I’m hoping I can do some maintenance stuff around the house. Weird, huh? No weirder than getting 15 inches of snow on Monday and having it all melt off by Friday. Stupid Iowa weather.
I don’t know how many of you follow college basketball – I know I certainly don’t. But this year, I have a personal investment in the NCAA tournament. The men’s team from my alma mater – The University of Northern Iowa – has made it to “The Big Dance”. They place third seed Georgia Tech today at 1:50 PM. I’ll be pulling for them. If you have nothing better to do, maybe you can flip on ESPN and see how the do!
One last order of business; Everyone make sure to visit our latest sponsor Music Television Sucks. It’s a really cool music web site that is a great resource for bands the fly under MTV’s radar. They have links to everything as well as songs and videos for download. It’s pretty cool!
That’s about it for now. Have you signed up for the forums yet? You should. It’s a popular place!
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Between this comic and last Friday’s “snugglebug” comic, I’ve been very interested in writing the relationship between Tom and Cami. I don’t read as many web comics as I used to, but I’ve been told that Theater Hopper is one of the few where two of the lead characters are married. To me, it’s almost inconsequential. Since I approach the comic from a “write what you know” perspective, there was never any reason for the characters NOT to be married, since they’re based off myself and my real-life wife, Cami.
At any rate, I still like writing the relationship stuff and, from the feedback I’ve gathered, you guys seem to dig it as well. So, win-win!
Yes Man comes out this weekend and I find myself looking forward to it in a way I wasn’t expecting. Even though it looks like a paint-by-numbers comedy (or, more accurately, the spiritual clone of Liar, Liar), I always appreciate Jim Carrey in broad comedic form. I look at him these days and think to myself “He’s getting kind of old for this. There are only so many more times he can make a movie like this before he has to switch gears permanently.”
So if you still giggle at the idea of a man talking out of his own butt, you’d better line up for Yes Man while you can. Because, eventually, Carrey’s rubber-faced antics are going to look really creepy flapping off the skull of a 50 year-old man.
I think now is the right time of year to release a movie like Yes Man. As you know, the premise of the film is about a man who simply says “Yes” to every opportunity thrown his way. Even when people might be taking advantage of him. The idea is to let the chips fall where they may and that your life will be richer for the experience.
I don’t know about you, but I always take stock of my life at this time of year. Not just because of the symbolism of a passing calendar from one year to the next, but because my birthday is also at the end of the year and that somehow makes the inventory process more personal to me. “Am I still engaged in life? Am I still learning new things? Am I a better person than I was a year ago?” I think Yes Man reflects this to a degree.
With any luck, I’ll get to see the movie this weekend. But things are always hectic right before the holidays. Either way, I think I suprised myself when I realized that this was the first Jim Carrey film I was sincerely looking forward to since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That’s kind of a weird comparison to make, but it pretty much says Carrey has been off my radar since 2004. So I’m eager to catch up with him.
That’s all for today. See you here on Friday!
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I know this is nothing new, but I am increasingly frustrated by our consumer society forcing the holiday season down our throats as early as they do. I really think there should be some kind of law that says stores need to keep Halloween decorations up at least until 6:00 AM on November 1. I think I went to Target looking for candy to give out on Beggar’s Night two days before Halloween and they were already selling Christmas trees. Slow down, Target!
Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol is symptomatic of this kind of “FIRE, READY, AIM!” pre-holiday mentality. I think they’ve pretty much acknowledged it in the commercials I’ve been seeing for the movie. I swear I heard the voiceover guy say something along the lines of “Celebrate the holidays early!” Yeah, dude? They’re a month and half away.
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy watching holiday movies AROUND the holidays. Watching a Dickensian classic 6 weeks out isn’t going to put me in the holiday mood any eariler. More than likely, I’m just gonna Scrooge it and forget about it completely.
I mean, I know that Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol is getting good reviews, but do they really expect it to have the momentum to carry it to December 25. I don’t care how many digital bells and whistles you strap onto the thing, everyone has heard the story a million times. It’s played out!
Frankly, my interest in the film is purely technical. I want to see what kind of improvements Zemeckis has made in the motion-capture animation technology that brought us the dead-eyed automotons from The Polar Express and Beowulf. It doesn’t hurt that it’s in 3D. That’s the cherry on top.
I know it sounds like I’m down on this film. I’m not. Frankly, I hope it does quite well. Because the IMAX theater we have downtown trotts out The Polar Express every year for the kids and every time I see an ad for that movie, I wanna scream. Hopefully Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol will replace it. Find another cash cow to float you over the holiday season, local IMAX theater!
Humbug?
What about you? Are you excited for A Christmas Carol? Does it look like an improvement over what we’ve seen from Zemeckis so far? Does anyone else find it weird that he is the ONLY proponent for this technology?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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